dating

I have some long-overdue news to share! I mentioned in this post last August that things had been going well with one of my OkCupid dates. They still are! We’ve been in a relationship for over a year now, and I’m still crazy about him.

Recently, I exported all of our texts to csv to see if I could find anything interesting. Here’s what I found. I’ll use the results to share a little more about our relationship.

Year Overview

Click image for interactive graph

As you can see from this graph, our relationship moved rather quickly. We moved in together less than four months after we started dating. The graph has two major peaks: one at the beginning, and one the week when we were moving in together, when we were figuring out all the necessary details. Not surprisingly, after we moved in together, we texted a lot less. Since then, we tend to exchange around 10 to 40 texts a week. I suspect this pattern will continue in the future.

Who texts the most?

Every month, I consistently sent fewer texts than he did. On average, he sent 26 texts per week, while I sent 22.

My texts, however, were generally longer. Mine were 53 characters long on average, while his were 50.

Most Common Phrases

Him

Me

Phrase

Count

Phrase

Count

I miss you

19

i miss you

12

u got it babe

6

i’m not sure

10

i hope you are having a nice day

4

just leaving work now

7

how are you going

4

on my way home

5

how is your day going

3

have a good sleep

5

you got it babe

3

i miss you too

5

at the library

5

i’m just heading home

4

From this you can see we miss each other frequently and I’m often on my way home, unsure or at the library. I find it amusing that “babe” was one of his most common words, when he would never call me that in person.

Smileys and Sad Faces

Number of texts containing a smiley or sad face

Type

Him

Me

🙂

74

67

😦

26

8

Number of texts containing multiple smiley or sad faces

Type

Him

Me

🙂

1

8

😦

0

0

We sent a fairly similar number of smiley faces, but he sent more than three times as many sad faces as I did. This was somewhat surprising to me because I think I’m gloomier than he is. I was much more likely to send multiple smiley faces in one text.

To conclude, his texts are smilier and more frequent. Mine are longer and more likely to contain multiple smileys. What does all this tell us about our relationship? Perhaps not a whole lot, but I at least enjoyed putting it together.

The Code

Here is the R code I used to create most of this analysis. I used Jihosoft to export my text messages as a csv and I used the text analyzer at online-utility.org to find the most common phrases.

There’s a popular trend in Japan and Korea: dating by blood type. Rather than asking a potential partner for their star sign, daters might ask their suitors whether they’re AB+. The idea behind it is that (supposedly) your blood type affects your personality, making you more or less compatible to certain other blood types.

While it has as much scientific basis as a game of MASH (You will live in a mansion, marry Nate, have 6 kids and drive a Ferrari…), it’s fun to have a look.

O + A = the woman must compromise a little more than the manO + B = in sync coupleO + O = the woman leads, but is lonelyO + AB = a fantasy, dream-like couple

AB + A = they come close easily, but there’s a high likelihood of fightsAB + B = they complement each other, but some troubles along the wayAB + O = the best partner, but some concern for sudden clashesAB + AB = they are on the same wavelength like a friend; energetic couple

Six weeks ago, I signed up for OkCupid. It’s my first attempt at online dating and also the first time I’ve actively tried to date.

Here’s how the numbers stack up:

Number of first messages I received:………..61
Number of first messages I sent:……………….0
Number of first messages I responded to:..8 (13%)
Number of first messages I received
that were one word long: ………………………….12 (20%)
Number of one word long first
messages I responded to:…………………………..1 (8%)
Total number of likes I got: ……………154
Total number of likes I gave: ………….4
Total number of 1st dates: …………….3
Total number of 2nd dates: ……………3
Total number of 3rd dates: …………….1
Total number of 4th dates: …………….1
Total number of 5th dates: …………….1
Total number of 6th dates: …………….1

Total number of one word long first messages that I responded to
that resulted in a 6th date: ………………….1 (100%)

So far, online dating has been surprisingly easy. I went on dates with three entirely decent guys. I’ve had no bad dates and one is going unexpectedly well! It’s still really early and anything could happen, but I’m excited to see where it leads.